ANSWERS: 6
  • Easy! That's what they call themselves!
  • Because 'chickens' was already taken
  • Maybe they're from Turkey.
  • Turkeys are called turkeys because the birds, which were native to Madagascar, were originally imported to other countries through trade routes that were based in the country of Turkey. The American turkeys were domesticated by the Aztecs.
  • 1) "When Europeans first encountered turkeys in the Americas they incorrectly identified the birds as a type of guineafowl (Numididae), also known as a turkey-cock from its importation to Central Europe through Turkey, and the name of that country stuck as the name of the bird. The confusion is also reflected in the scientific name: meleagris is Greek for guinea-fowl. The names for M. gallopavo in other languages also frequently reflect its exotic origins, seen from an Old World viewpoint, and add to the confusion about where turkeys actually came from. The many references to India seen in common names go back to a combination of two factors: first, the genuine belief that the newly-discovered Americas were in fact a part of Asia, and second, the tendency during that time to attribute exotic animals and foods to a place that symbolized far-off, exotic lands. The latter is reflected in terms like "Muscovy Duck" (which is from South America, not Muscovy). This was a major reason why the name "turkey-cock" stuck to Meleagris rather than to the guinea fowl (Numida meleagris): the Ottoman Empire represented the exotic East." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_(bird%29 2) "The name of Turkey, Türkiye in the Turkish language, can be divided into two words: Türk, which means "Strong" in Old Turkic and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples, a later form of "Tu–kin", a name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BCE; and the abstract suffix –iye (derived from the Arabic suffix –iyya, but also associated with the Medieval Latin suffix –ia in Turchia, and the Medieval Greek suffix –ία in Τουρκία), which means "owner" or "related to". The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks (Sky Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century CE). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369)." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey 3) "turkey 1541, "guinea fowl" (Numida meleagris), imported from Madagascar via Turkey, by Near East traders known as turkey merchants. The larger North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) was domesticated by the Aztecs, introduced to Spain by conquistadors (1523) and thence to wider Europe, by way of North Africa (then under Ottoman rule) and Turkey (Indian corn was originally turkey corn or turkey wheat in Eng. for the same reason). The word turkey was first applied to it in Eng. 1555 because it was identified with or treated as a species of the guinea fowl. The Turkish name for it is hindi, lit. "Indian," probably via Fr. dinde (contracted from poulet d'inde, lit. "chicken from India"), based on the common misconception that the New World was eastern Asia. The New World bird itself reputedly reached England by 1524 at the earliest estimate, though a date in the 1530s seems more likely. By 1575, turkey was becoming the usual main course at an English Christmas. Meaning "inferior show, failure," is 1927 in show business slang, probably from the bird's reputation for stupidity. Meaning "stupid, ineffectual person" is recorded from 1951. Turkey shoot "something easy" is World War II-era, in ref. to marksmanship contests where turkeys were tied behind a log with their heads showing as targets." Source and further information: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=turkey
  • The bird we today call a turkey is native to America. Yet, how did it become associated with the country of Turkey? Turk, the name of the people, is of unknown origin. It has cognates in the Romance languages, Byzantine Greek, Persian, and Arabic. It may even be related to the Chinese Tu-kin, a name given to a nomadic people thought to be who we now call the Huns. The Tu-kins occupied the land south of the Altai mountains in Asia in the 3rd century B.C.E. The name Turkey, the land of the Turks, makes its English appearance in the 14th century. From Chaucer’s c.1369 The Dethe of Blaunche: Ne sende men in-to Walakye,...To Alisaundre, ne in-to Turkye. (Nor send men into Wallachia,…To Alexandria, nor into Turkey.) In the 16th century, the guinea-fowl was introduced to Europe. While the bird is actually native to Africa, it was brought to Europe via Turkey and so was dubbed the turkey. From the 1541 Constitutio T. Cranmeri: It was also provided, that of the greater fyshes or fowles there should be but one in a dishe, as crane, swan, turkeycocke, hadocke, pyke, tench. When Europeans arrived in America, they noticed similarities between the guinea-fowl and the American bird and called the latter turkey. William Dugdale’s Origines Juridicales, published in 1666, includes a 1555 citation referencing the American bird: Turkies 2. rated at 4s. a piece..00. 08. 00. Theatrical use of turkey to mean a flop dates to the 1920s. A 1927 issue of Vanity Fair has: “A turkey” is a third rate production. General disparaging use dates to at least 1941 when it appears in James Cain’s novel Mildred Pierce: The beach in front was studded with rocks and was therefore unsuitable to swimming. For all ordinary purposes it was simply a turkey. Exactly why the word was first used to refer disparagingly to a person is uncertain, but it is often claimed to be because of the bird’s fabled low intelligence. (Sources: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition; Wentworth & Flexner’s Dictionary of American Slang)

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